to her. I heard one of her bridesmaids express to Mr. Webster her surprise at Lizzie consenting to give up her belleship, with all the delights of Washington society, and the advantages of her position, and retire to a quiet Virginia home. Ah,' said he,

'Love rules the court, the camp, the grove,

And love is heaven, and heaven is love.'

*

"Our dear mother was down-stairs on this occasion for the first time, in so large a circle, since she has been in Washington. She gained by comparison with all the fine ladies around her. I felt proud of her, in her perfectly faultless, yet unostentatious dress, her face shaded by the soft fine lace of her cap, receiving in her sweet, gentle, self-possessed manner, all the important people who were led up and presented to her. She was far more attractive to me in her appearance and bearing than any other lady in the room, and I believe such was the general impression. Somebody says, 'the highest order of manner is that which combines dignity with simplicity;' and this just describes mother's manner, the charm of which, after all, proceeds from her entire forgetfulness of self, and the wish to make those around her happy." *

*

Major Tyler enables me to glean further facts and incidents as to the modes and inmates of the Executive Mansion during this period, before which all confusion of idea vanishes. He says:

"I was for more than three years 'Major Domo' of the establishment, and to the last private secretary,

but never to this day have received from the Government, directly or indirectly, one dollar for my services in either capacity. My mother's health was entirely too delicate to permit her to charge herself with the semi-official social requirements of the mansion, and my married sisters being unavoidably absent for the most of the time, the task devolved upon Mrs. Robert Tyler to represent my mother on stated occasions. She continued in the rôle of honors, as they are termed, until after my mother's death, and my brother made his arrangements to practise law in Philadelphia, by which time it also happened that Mr. Semple's affairs became differently accommodated, and he proceeded to sea as a Purser in the United States Navy, when my sister Letitia became at liberty to take up her abode in Washington. Accordingly, both the President and myself now addressed to her letters, inviting her to assume the position and duties of 'Lady of the White House,' which she consented to do and so acted until May, 1844.

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During my mother's life, and up to this date, always contemning pretension and worldly vanity, we lived in the White House' as we lived at home, save that we were obliged to have rather more company.

* Letitia, the second and only surviving daughter and fourth child of Mrs. Letitia Tyler, married in early life the nephew and adopted son of Judge Semple, of Williamsburg, Virginia, who reared and educated him to manhood, his own father, a brother of the Judge, as well as his mother, dying in his infancy, leaving him by will a handsome fortune. The Semples are of the family of the Earls Dundonald, of Scotland, and of the same branch with that of the celebrated Blair, appointed by King James the first commissioner of Virginia, and who was afterward President of William and Mary College.

less select as to true worth than was altogether agreeable. In the course of the 'fashionable season,' and while the sessions of the Congress lasted, we gave two dinner parties each week, very much after the plain, substantial Virginia manner and style, to the first of which, usually confined to gentlemen from different parts of the country visiting Washington, and who had shown respectful attention to the President and family, twenty guests were always invited; and to the second, usually embracing both ladies and gentlemen from among the dignitaries of the different departments of the Federal and State governments, and the diplomatic corps of foreign governments, forty persons were invited, making in either case quite a full table.

"Our drawing rooms, as at home, were open every evening informally until 10 o'clock-never later— when the family rose and retired, and doors were closed. Before my mother's death, we gave occasionally during the winter months, by special invitations, in the general reception-rooms, a private ball, attended with dancing, but terminating at 11 o'clock. In addi tion to these private entertainments and strictly social converse, we introduced at this period—for the first time it had been done-music on the grounds of the south front of the Mansion, on the Saturday evenings of each week during the mild weather of the spring, summer, and fall, for the recreation of the public at large; and to a similar end a public levee was held once a month, in addition to the general receptions on the first day of January and the Fourth of July, of each year.

"Nothing whatever preceded by cards of invita

tion was permitted to be considered in any other light than as a private affair of the Presidential family, with which the world outside and the public press had nothing whatever to do, just precisely as if we had been in our own house in Williamsburg. Even in respect to the public receptions mentioned, the Madisonian was never suffered to indulge in a description either of the persons or characters present, in an individualizing manner, after modern usages, and no en couragement was given to any one so to do. I send you a specimen of the only sort of notice, even in the latter case, that was regarded as at all admissible while my mother lived. Any thing more particular would have shocked her delicate sense of propriety, and been absolutely offensive to the President.

The Madisonian, Washington, Monday, March 17, 1842.

"THE LAST LEVEE OF THE SEASON.

"The levee held by the President on Tuesday evening last, was a brilliant affair, and gave satisfactory evidence of the esteem in which that high functionary is held in social circles.

"Among the visitors of peculiar note were the distinguished authors of the 'Sketch-Book,' and of the 'Pickwick Papers,' in addition to whom almost all the Ministers of Foreign Powers to our Government were in attendance in full court dress.

"The rooms were filled to overflowing with the talent and beauty of the metropolis, whilst Senators and Members of Congress, without distinction of party, served to give interest and to add animation to the

scene. It seems to us that these levees, as at present conducted, are peculiarly adapted to the genius of our Republican institutions, inasmuch as all who please may attend without infringement of etiquette. We almost regret their termination for the season, but look forward with pleasure to the period when they will be renewed."

"I may say that this notice, as restrained as it is, bears internal evidence showing that it would not have been made but for the necessity of informing the public in some indirect manner of the termination of the public receptions for a season. I find none other. In another column, and in quite a different connection, the Madisonian says: "The Richmond Whig admits, and we heartily concur in the sentiment, that Mr. Tyler, in his appointment of Washington Irving, the author of the 'Sketch Book,' as Minister to Spain, has paid a just tribute to the most distinguished ornament of American letters.' Scarcely any notice appears of the marriage of my sister Elizabeth in the preceding January, that being regarded as a purely family matter.

"Allow me one word more, in conclusion, pertaining to the subject. Such was the bitterness of party feeling toward us, that no appropriation was made by Congress either for furnishing the house, or for the office of private secretary, or for the incidental expenses of fuel, lights, door-keepers, messengers, &c., that are now so abundant as really to double the salof the Executive Office over what it then was. left Washington with my private means exhausted, and scarcely able to get home in Virginia, only there

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